Selling Without Stereotyping

An advertiser's goal is to sell you their product. Marketing teams will often go to great lengths to reach an audience using use race, sex, gender stereotypes etc. According to Douglas Kellner "U.S. society invests over $102 billion a year into advertising." (127) Some negative effects of advertisements are the way they effect the consumer's self esteem. "They sell values, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, (...) They tell us who we are and who we should be." (Kilbourne 121) Advertisements target issues that can create and fuel insecurities within their consumers. However, companies can seek alternatives to sell their products without the damaging effects on their audience.

In the example of a company trying to sell hair products to women, they will probably use a young woman with perfect facial features and flowing hair to sell their shampoo. Then a handsome man will show up standing beside her, while carressing her soft, shiny hair.

Notice that the man showed no interest in the girl in the start of the commercial, but offered her a ride on his horse as soon as she used the Garnier cream. When women look at a poster or billboard that features such a beautiful woman, they might feel inferior in comparison. They might feel that their hair isn't nearly as soft or shiny, and that they should buy this product to achieve that desired effect.

An alternative to the "get-a-man-by-doing-this" advertising technique, could be by using a popular cartoon to promote your product.

In this billboard, Dove used an identifiable character, Marge Simpson, and showed the effects its Anti-Frizz Cream will have on her type of hair. Marge isn't usually seen as a sex symbol in entertainment, so the advertisement isn't making her look sexy after her hair transformation. Also, the ad isn't saying that one hairstyle is necessarily better than the other; it's just showing the product's potential results.

Not all advertisements are evil and malevolent. Nowadays many alcohol brands are starting to diminish drinking and driving. According to alocholalert.com, the amount of alcohol-related fatalities in the U.S. alone was 37% in 2008. However, in an effort to convey this urgent message, many advertisers ultimately fail in diminishing the use of stereotypes.

In this commercial, two stereotypes are in play. "The nagging wife" is used as the voice of reason and the "careless male driver" is the antagonist. The woman sits in the car yelling at the man for drinking and driving, but it doesn't occur to her to drive the car herself... Or maybe even decide to call a cab. No, she doesn't the capability to do those things, but she is able to nag at him during the whole ride. The man is clearly not listening to the woman's nagging, and because his attention is impaired because of his alcohol use, they get into a car accident. An alternative to raising awareness about drunk driving without stereotyping either gender could be this:

In this poster, the beer cap has a picture of a car in the center. When the beer cap is opened, the car looks damaged and broken, thus exemplifying the effects of on a car when a driver is under the influence of alcohol. This ad technique is one in which no minority is offended.

Advertisements are important in today's mass media and virtually every company relies on ads to boost product sales. "We are each exposed to over 1500 ads a day, (...) The average adult will spend one and one-half years of his/her life watching television commercials." (Kilbourne 121) Clearly, there's not much we can do to stop the use of advertising, but we can change the types of advertisements we see. There are alternative paths that the industry can take to get their message across. It's also our personal responsibility to not let the negative effects of media impact our lives.